


Snake In the Grass

by Twilight_Shadow_Songs



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Gotham, by an unlikely foe, destroyed, no-one saw it coming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Shadow_Songs/pseuds/Twilight_Shadow_Songs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people are best described as this, and described as this for a reason. </p><p>why? you never see them coming till it's too late to dodge the poisoned bite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snake In the Grass

J-Man wasn’t stupid, though he didn’t mind people thinking he was. If anyone cared to look, they’d notice he was in charge of all the Jokerz, and had been before he’d met Delia. And if they cared to look further, they’d notice that anyone who challenged him didn’t show up again, and that Terminal, the arguably more dangerous one, didn’t try to become head of the Jokerz. 

J-Man was boss-man for a reason, he was a crafty snake.

Maybe he’d dropped out of high-school, but he hadn’t lived with a smack-talking abusive mother and a drunkard abusive father not to know how to survive and thrive, and manipulate the hell out of people around him. Not even Delia had a clue her boyfriend was twitching strings and moving blocks and keeping Jokerz the most powerful gangs in sixteen different cities. Of course, when she wanted to take her grandfather’s throne as it were, he’d step down and let her have it. But, he’d be crafty, and work everything behind her back so it was all moving smoothly. Like Harley before him, and Bob the Hitman before her. Someone crazy was great to have at the helm, because they were too eccentric and dangerous to want to kill, but they were terrible in the simpler tasks, like figuring out how they were going to get a thousand tons of elephant dung laced with corrosive and bombs into the mayor’s office. 

J-Man’s mind was a secret only Terminal knew about. He needed a front-man after all, and Terminal didn’t actually mind it seemed. He was odd that way. All talk and bitterness and willing to shoot you, until you talk authoritatively and glare him down and he melted like a pat of butter over a lighter and did as you asked. Which would be very useful later on.

J-Man had plans, big plans. He was going to outshine Joker one bad joke at a time. First, subway train robberies, then banks, then murders, then-well, then he’d probably have the last laugh and burn this city to the ground. Oh, he’d save people, sure. You couldn’t live without Batman, so knock him out and drag him bodily from the city. Maybe even let Delia do what she wanted with him while he watched. That was hot. Then, you needed kids. He didn’t like kids, but they had their uses. They were so gullible and trainable, so easy to manipulate. Then, some proper followers, so that meant Ghoul, because he was a smart hacker boy, Woof, because J-Man liked Woof, and maybe Dot and Saiko. And Terminal, you always needed your second in command. And actually, maybe Deidre too, nobody else he knew could cook. Once he had them all, he’d start on Battery City, and then Big City, Metropolis, oh, he had it all planned.

And nobody would even guess the half-baked J-Man was coming, not until he had venom in their face and a kick me sign with held on with a dagger in their back. Thought you could get the better of J-Man, eh? 

J-Man watched as his bombs counted down, and smiled over at an unconscious Batman, held possessively by his snookie-kins. “Guess who had the laugh, eh Bats?”

Shrieks of laughter cut through the sound of a city being blown apart, and echoed through the wreckage long after the party had gone.

Who would get the better of J-Man?

Nobody.

**Author's Note:**

> So, J-Man is always described in a rather negative light, and I thought 'hey, twist of twists, what if J-Man is actually smart, and dangerous? And capable of pretty much anything? If you add in perhaps being a very good actor, the thought is rather frightening. You'd never see someone so ridiculous as a threat, until it was far, far too late.


End file.
